CCR

Creative critical reflection:

The song “Pink + White” by frank ocean is known by many to be a mixture of R&B and soul as it’s defined with a slower beat and unique use of sound. It was a very interesting song to work with as it had no previously existing music video, giving us freedom to to be creative and deliberate with our choice of representation. 

One of the main themes being  portrayed is age and gender as they were both conventions we challenged. We portrayed age in an interesting yet significant way as we chose actors among our own age (16-17) to not only refer Frank ocean at a younger age as he reflects on his past but also to make it more appealing to our target audience between the ages of 16 - 30. Giving a visual representation the youth demographic, allowing us to make our music video more connected to Gen Z. Its also interesting to note that 42% of the Gen Z population have been clinically diagnosed with a mental health condition which altogether makes this song come through as more empathetic and responsive to this generation, particularly those struggling with things such as addictions, heartbreak or lack of identity, which are all common issues in todays society.  Gender also comes through as gender equality is yet another arising issue in society. We challenged this by having all our actors female to test the waters a little bit. Unlike other music video's such as ‘love story’ by Taylor swift or “a thousand years” by Christina Perry where both woman are posed as the “damsel in distress” as often portrayed by the media, our actors dressed in streetwear challenges that convention. Especially when Mikala (our main actor) is walking through the streets alone as it almost hints at how woman can now be seen as independent and capable of handling themselves without a man as their ‘protector’. The graffiti shots we used also bring through aspects of vandalism and even rebellion, adding to the issues we represented in society linking itself to Frank ocean himself as he is often known to think 'outside the box’ as he also has a rebellious attitude towards society.

It took a while for us to settle on ideas in terms of the mood we wanted to bring through but we eventually decided to use a mixture of effects, shots, and color mixing to create a unique tone as well as go along with the lyrics nicely. Using a lot of mid shots really helped us capture our actors movements as they walked as well as lay out their surroundings as they also played a significant part in what was going on around the main subject. For example, we contrasted the busy almost claustrophobic city with the more tranquil park environment, in order to reinforce the differences between past and present as well as the memories.

Many of the camera shots we used included mid shots, close ups, and wide shots. This is because we not only wanted to grasp a hold of the overall setting and atmosphere we were working with but also to gave our audience some variety in order to keep them engaged even when the song became repetitive. We also worked on mixing a variety of filters and effects in order to keep the visual picture appealing throughout. By using a mixture of both black and white in order to reflect on the past it allows us to portray a sense of nostalgia and focus on our main actors. These contrasting colors also convey a certain delicacy as black white often evokes sophistication while white is as well known symbol for purity and innocence. I then partnered this with the use of the vintage screen effect which emphasizes those memories even more.  We used a few tracking shots of our main actor in order to give our audience a prolonged sense of movement and smoothness which aligns with the background beat of the songs smooth rhythm. 

One thing we challenged is duration of our shots. Most music videos, depending on their genre, consist of fast quick paced shots. However, most of our shots ate slow and even considered a bit lengthy. So it was a challenge for us to keep it engaging all the way through

As mentioned above, Frank ocean is known to be inconsistent, rebellious and ‘out of the box’ which encouraged us to be more creative in terms of our stylistic approach in creating a music video that would match Franks energy as much as possible. One way we made our products interesting for our audience is by doing our best to align it accurately with Frank ocean himself. Despite him not being active on social media as much as other artists, I incorporated quotes he has used in the past in each of the captions which will hopefully engage his true fans.

We spent slot of time creating our branding campaign as well as creating a themes which slows our audience to become familiar with our brand and what it represents. I personally chose to use symbolic colors consisting of purple, representing a sense of ambition, pink linking to our theme of friendship and harmony, and blue which complies with our open spaces as well as inspiration and intuition. I wanted our digipack to somewhat stand out but also to comply with the conventions of a traditional digipak.